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Beijing Motor Show

This year's Shanghai Motor Show has not ruled out banning promotional models that normally accompany cars on show stands, after models' racy attire at the 2012 Beijing Motor Show was chastised for having "a negative social impact."

The next-generation Nissan Leaf battery-electric vehicle will look better and go farther on a single charge, company executives tell Automotive News. How much better and how much farther remains to be seen, as does the timing on when the new version will be available to the public.

Translated into American-friendly figures, BYD may as well call its new numeric-driven strategy "5-4-118." Of course, that doesn't have the same ring as "5-4-2." Those are the numbers on which the China-based vehicle maker is basing its performance and efficiency goals for all future vehicle lines, and they are indeed lofty.

Chinese car site Autohome has what are said to be the first pictures of the Volkswagen New Midsize Coupe concept in production form. VW's NMC was just introduced at the Beijing Motor Show, while background chatter indicated it would go on sale in China, Autohome says that production version will be built at the Shanghai-Volkswagen plant in Ningbo, and the retail guise could be introduced at the Guangzhou Motor Show in November and go on sale that same month.

The Chinese auto industry used to be looked at as a joke full of products blatantly copied from foreign vehicles. However, companies like Qoros and others show that the country's automakers have taken big steps in terms of original design. It doesn't look like every automaker there is ready to put down the tracing paper yet, though. Case in point: The Kawei K1 pickup pictured above, which is an obvious rip-off of the Ford F-150. In fact, the company isn't even hiding it.

The Land Rover hybrid models are growing both in terms of offerings and in size. At the 2014 Beijing Motor Show, the brand unveiled the Range Rover Long Wheelbase Hybrid to join the standard version and Range Rover Sport Hybrid.

The Hongqi has arrived, and with it the greater hopes that powerful Chinese will ride in symbols of Chinese power. The Honqi L5 sedan produced by China's FAW Group, first unveiled last year (and called the L9 at the time), is - in some circles - intended to be among the homegrown replacements for the millions of foreign luxury cars the Chinese government purchases for important officials. Shown at this year's Beijing Motor Show in production guise and now available to civilians as well, a Chines

We obsessively covered the 2014 Beijing Motor Show, but apparently Citroën decided it had one more vehicle to debut to join its DS 6WR and DS 5LS R at the Chinese show. This C-XR Concept is far less wildly styled than the two other models, however, as this concept is actually quite close to production spec.

Standing next to the lovely GTE plug-in hybrid during the Beijing Motor Show, VW CEO Martin Winterkorn announced a renewed, $25-billion focus for the German automaker on electric mobility in China. EVs + China is not a new equation for VW (see here and here and here), but the time is now for the plan to come together, apparently. As Winterkorn said in a statement (available below), "We are launching the biggest initiative for e-mobility in China's automotive history."

We're almost ready to record Episode #377 of the Autoblog Podcast! You can check out the topics below, add your own to the Q&A and join us live via UStream, as well. Keep reading for our embedded UStream player, and thanks for listening!

Didn't we just wrap up a major international auto show? Oh, yeah, we did. Fresh off the heels of New York, we're back with another slew of debuts direct from the Beijing show in China. While the Big Apple expo was full of new production cars that'll be hitting the streets of the States in the not-too-distant future, Beijing gave us a preview of what's coming beyond that.

The Golf R 400 Concept with 395 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque might be one of the coolest concepts at the 2014 Beijing Motor Show. The absolutely scorching hatch can hit 62 miles per hour in 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 174 miles per hour. All of that power comes out the EA888 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder that is nearly ubiquitous in VW Group's cars with all-wheel drive. The even better news about the R 400 is that it might actually see production.

Hyundai introduced an all-new crossover concept to the crowds at the 2014 Beijing Motor Show, showing the ix25, a near-production concept that heralds the arrival of a new compact CUV for the People's Republic.

Chevrolet may have just introduced a slight styling refresh and new tech for the North American Cruze at the New York Auto Show, but Shanghai GM, General Motor's Chinese joint venture partner, has gone a step further, unveiling an all-new generation of the popular compact at the 2014 Beijing Motor Show.

We're set to record Autoblog Podcast #377 this evening. Check out the topics below, or drop us your questions and comments via our Q&A module. And don't forget to subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes if you haven't already done so. To take it all in live, tune in to our UStream (audio only) channel at 10:00 PM Eastern tonight.

The Ford Everest Concept SUV at the 2014 Beijing Motor Show shows the future of the Blue Oval's truck line in China. While a concept for now, we're told that JMC, Ford's Chinese joint-venture partner, will build a production version sometime in the near future.

Ford officially revived the Escort name in China, showing of the new, four-door compact at the Beijing Motor Show. Painted in a stylish brown-bronze, the new sedan wears a number of global Ford styling cues while sharing its platform with the Ford Focus.

Audi took the wraps of its TT Offroad Concept at the Beijing Motor Show, after teasing us with sketches earlier this month. "The Audi TT offroad concept provides a glimpse of how we might imagine a new model in the future TT family," says Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, Member of the Board of Management for Technical Development. "It combines the sporty genes of the TT with the strengths of a compact Audi SUV."

The Bugatti Veyron Legend editions may do nothing to alter the Grand Sport Vitesse's already prodigious performance, but buyers appear to love them. Four special models have been unveiled so far, and Bugatti has sold out of all of them. At the 2014 Beijing Motor Show, the automaker has introduced the fifth Legend – the Black Bess.

Meet the Volkswagen baby CC. Okay, that's not really it's name (VW calls it the New Midsize Coupe Concept), but this sleek, four-door coupe draws more than a little inspiration from the CC while riding on VW's MQB platform.

Nissan showed off a stylish new concept car to the assembled crowds of media at the Beijing Motor Show. The Lannia Concept is... well, it's not that easy to describe. It's kind of a sedan, only it looks a bit like a fastback from the rear. But for a twist, it has an ever-so-small rear deck. Regardless of how we'd classify it, it's a seriously sharp piece of styling, thanks to its unique shape and flowing character lines.